Am I crazy?

Well, maybe. If you remember, last summer was filled with loads of work on my book (Beading With Filigree, see the button, top left!) coming out this month from Lark Books. The book will be out soon, and as soon as we have an actual date we'll schedule a party. If you are in the area and you ordered the book with the free kit, you can come pick it up at the party. There will be a drawing for a filigree fantasy kit and more great items that you can enter...

It is good that this book is almost here. I have started work on book #2. Yes, that is the 'crazy' part. What am I thinking? Last time I was up until the wee hours way too much. I lost a whole season in my garden, didn't read the paper for months and even gave up most other forms of 'craft' for the book projects. Somehow, though, it was fun. The next book will be about ways to incorporate words into your jewelry. I love to add special words and phrases to my work, either for the simple poetry of the specific word or because of a special meaning the word or words hold for me. This book will be all about the ways you can do just that. I am also going to get to work with a few of my favorite artists on this project as I talked the folks at Lark into letting me add some other talented designers.

So I am crazy, but maybe it's a good crazy.

Pie

Do you like pie? I do. This time of year I like summer fruit pies or cold vegetable tarts (like zuchini and cheese) but I willingly take a bite of anything good you put between pastry crusts. I love to bake pies and tarts (that's my apple galette right there, galette is a fancy word for a pie with no pan) but I don't have as much time to indulge in this lately. Something about two young children, businesses to run, etc. that drops pie to the bottom of the list next to painting my toenails and finishing a book.

We are treating ourselves this year to a subscription to a CSP. That's Community Supported Pie. It's a lot like a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where you pay ahead for a share of a farmer's crop except in the CSP you pay ahead for a share of the baker's work for the week. Every Friday we get a box of deliciousness that is the biggest treat ever. We do most of our own cooking most of the time, so a fabulous treat in the house made by someone else is a REAL treat. We've been extra busy and sometimes on Friday night after the girls are asleep in bed and my husband has closed the store for the night we sit on the couch and eat a slice of pie off the same plate and talk to each other for the first time in a week. It's what passes for a date in the glamorous world of us bead entrepreneurs.

Phoebe Lawless of Scratch Bakery has a CSP that drops off at Ornamentea on Fridays. Thanks goodness. I don't think Friday would be the same without it. Tuesday nights would be a little less exciting, too (she says as she licks her fork!)

*if you wish to learn more about Community Supported Agriculture here in NC, visit the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. Good folks, good food.